1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing method, an electronic money service providing system, and a recording medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing method, an electronic money service providing system, and a recording medium that allow many issuers and affiliate merchants to participate in one brand and permit a reduction in cost required for distributing cryptographic keys to issuers and the affiliate merchants and for running and managing a system in an electronic money business.
2. Description of the Related Art
More integrated circuit (IC) cards are being used in electronic money systems and security systems. The IC card is a card-shaped device with an IC chip embedded therein, and mainly includes a processing unit, such as a central processing unit (CPU), for performing a variety of types of processing and a memory for storing data necessary for processing. Data is read from or written to the IC card by using a predetermined reader/writer in an electrical contact state or a contactless state in which electromagnetic waves are utilized.
In using IC cards on an electronic money system, a security system, or the like, it is important to ensure security, including the protection of the confidentiality of data and the prevention of the falsification of IC cards. It is necessary, therefore, to manage resources for storing data and to achieve control for flexible access with high security.
An electronic money business involving an IC card is constructed by three functions, namely, a brand holder that manages an electronic money brand, an acquirer that acquires and manages affiliate merchants in the electronic money business, and an issuer that issues IC cards.
Heretofore, an electronic money business has been run by a business unit that integrally implements three functions, namely, a brand holder, an acquirer, and issuer. Alternatively, a plurality of acquirers and a plurality of issuers may enter into partnership with each other to create a single brand holder, with the individual domains being independent.
However, when a single business unit integrally effecting the three functions (a brand holder, an acquirer, and an issuer) runs an electronic money business, the business unit has to assume all the investment in the systems required for running the electronic money business. These investment costs include the cost of hardware resources, such as terminal apparatuses for affiliate merchants, and the cost for issuing and managing IC cards in running the business. The electronic money systems are based on a prepaid system in which users pay in advance or provisionally pay, so that the commission charges cannot be set higher than other settlement methods (e.g., credit cards and debit cards). This has made it difficult to increase profits in relation to the initial investment.
However, when the respective business domains are independent and a plurality of acquirers and a plurality of issuers enter into partnership for a single brand holder to run an electronic money business, the initial investment for running the business can be shared among the business domains, making it possible to reduce the initial investment assumed by each business unit. This, however, leads to a complicated business conformation. Because the electronic money system is run by a plurality of the business units in partnership, it becomes difficult to share the revenue of the entire business among the individual business domains.
In addition, when a single IC card is interactively operated by a plurality of service providers, arrangements must be made so that the information or applications regarding a specific service provided by a certain service provider cannot be accessed without authorization by another service provider interactively operating the IC card. Thus, the information or applications for services to be carried out in cooperation must be made sharable among the service providers in the partnership while maintaining security at the same time.
However, setting up a brand holder, an acquirer, and an issuer discretely so as to make them independent means split business domains. This inevitably results in complicated distribution and management of cryptographic keys used for the authentication processing required when electronic money is loaded into IC cards or electronic money is used at affiliate merchants. This has led to an increase in the cost of maintaining and managing business systems.